The use of wireless communication between devices is common today and is growing at a rapid pace. For example, many building control systems, as well as other system, use wireless communication to pass information and/or commands between devices of the system. For example, in building control systems, such as Heating, Ventilation and/or Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, security systems, fire systems, lighting systems, and the like, building control devices (e.g. sensors, valves, actuators, etc.) often include wireless communication modules that support wireless communication with a central building controller or the like. This may eliminate the need to run wires between each of the devices and the central controller. With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), many standard appliances, as well as other devices, now incorporate wireless communication modules that support communication over a network.
In some cases, some of these wireless devices are battery powered. To achieve acceptable battery life, such battery powered devices often spend a majority of their life time in a low power state. At strictly controlled times (e.g. every 4 minutes), the battery powered devices may wake up to wirelessly receive messages from another device and/or wirelessly send messages to other devices in a tightly synchronized manner. After processing the received messages, the battery powered devices typically return to the low power state in order to conserve battery power.
The amount of time that the battery powered devices remains awake, as well as the frequency of the wake periods, directly affects the battery life of the battery powered devices. Thus, to increase the battery life of the battery powered devices, it is desirable to reduce the amount of time that the battery powered devices remains awake during each wake period, and to increase the time the battery powered devices remain in the low power state between the synchronized wake periods. However, increasing the time that the battery powered devices remain in the low power state between the wake periods increases typically decreases the responsiveness of the system, which can be undesirable particularly when a user is interacting with the system. What would be desirable is a system that maintains or even extends the battery life of such battery powered wireless devices while increasing the apparent responsiveness of the system.